Scotch, Rocks and Mars
by Serena Thorn
Summary: Alternate ending for 3x10. Instead of Landry, it's Lamb Keith ends up talking to at the bar. The topic? Who else? Veronica.  V/Lamb, Keith


Title: Scotch, Rocks and Mars  
Rating: PG-13  
Summary: Alternate ending for 3x10. What if it had been Lamb Keith talked to at the bar instead?  
Spoilers: 3x10  
Characters/Pairings: Keith, Lamb, mentions Logan, Veronica/Lamb  
Word Count: 1185  
Disclaimer: Veronica Mars is not owned by me, but by Rob Thomas. I'm simply borrowing these characters for non-profit entertainment. 

* * *

"What'll you have?" the bartender asked as Keith came walking up.

"Scotch please," he ordered as he took a seat on the empty bar stool, catching sight of the younger man already seated and staring into the amber liquid in his glass as though it could grant him the answers he didn't seem to be getting elsewhere.

The song playing was sad love ballad Keith had put on intentionally given the odds were in his favor that this man he was sitting two stools from had girl trouble on the brain. Truth be told, Keith didn't usually enjoy talking with lonely men in bars who seemed to want nothing more than to get drunk, but tonight he needed information. Playing the part of being just another guy grabbing a drink for the same purpose seemed to be the best option.

"You married?" Keith asked when his drink arrived.

Don looked over at him with a quizzical stare. How drunk did he think he was? Keith knew the answer to that as well as anyone. "No."

"Involved?"

"More or less," Lamb scoffed before taking another sip of his drink. Why did Keith care? It wasn't like he was dating him.

"Must be a hell of a girl for her to have you drinking on your night off."

Lamb took another sip in favor of keeping himself quiet. This was the last conversation he wanted to have and Keith was most certainly the last person he wanted to have it with. Luckily Lamb was still on his second drink of the night so the irony wasn't lost on him that should Keith be heading towards a rather obvious conclusion then this could in fact be the last conversation he would have with anyone.

"So what is she like?" Keith asked, making sure to seem just interested enough in the sheriff's love life while still maintaining the tact he was lacking when he and Cliff blackmailed him the year before.

That time Lamb had to laugh. He could go on about what a firecracker she was, but then he would be a dead man. He could describe her physically but knowing Keith that would still earn him a round in the balls. Instead he just flashed his patented smirk and asked, "What are they all like?"

"So she's crazy?" Keith chuckled. "Or maybe it's us, the guys who are out drinking in bars when we should be at home with the women who put up with us. So what's your story? You've got yourself a new girl who I'm guessing is a step above one I could mention from your past and you're not at home with her. Why's that?"

Lamb took a long sip and then turned to face him that time. "Guess there's only so much of me she can put up with."

Keith nodded, he could buy that. Don wasn't exactly known for being an easy guy to get along with.

After another uncomfortable moment of silence, feeling his predecessor's eyes attempting to burn into his mind as if to see the images he seemed to know were locked away there, he finally took another sip and continued, "Long story. Short version? I think I have her daddy to thank."

That time Keith chuckled. "Anyone I know?"

"Since when are you so interested in my relationships, Keith?" No better time to bite the bullet, he decided. Clearly Keith knew, there was no point in dragging this out even more.

"Maybe since you began one with my daughter," he answered as nonchalantly as he could.

Just like that it was out. Don sighed out both in relief and fear. Relief that Veronica and he could quit sneaking around like what they had been doing for the last few weeks was wrong. Hell, she was nineteen - perfectly legal. But then too came the fear that Keith Mars would shoot him because he of all people had touched Keith's little girl.

Ever since Veronica had come to him about Mercer he hadn't been able to get the case out of his head. Veronica had solved the case herself, as usual, and had nearly been raped and murdered in the process and Lamb had known he never could have lived with himself had the worst happened.

When Veronica had come back to the station the next day to give her statement, he had lasted all of twenty minutes before yelling at her for having been so careless, for letting herself get hurt and for almost getting herself killed.

And just when Veronica had attempted to protest, to fire her endless line of retaliatory comebacks about how if he had been doing his job she wouldn't have had to, before she could even get a syllable out he had stopped her by covering her mouth with his own and pressing her body up against the wall of his office with his.

Maybe it hadn't been the beginning either of them had anticipated but somehow it fit, somehow it was them and Veronica certainly hadn't seemed to be complaining either.

"You were the one who found Mercer and Moe. I was the one that had Logan Echolls put into a cell with them. I would've lost my badge if anyone found I put hands on those kids. Echolls? Guess he proved he's good for somethin' after all." Lamb went on before finishing his scotch.

"Might I make a suggestion?" Keith asked as the sheriff set his drained glass down.

Lamb looked to him with a quirked brow, wordlessly asking what his suggestion was.

"You call a cab and sleep it off. Veronica doesn't need to see yet another boyfriend in a drunken state."

Lamb chuckled. "Boyfriend? She call me that?"

"No," Keith answered with a shake of his head. "In fact I've got you to thank for my having figured it out. But I would hope that if you two have been coupling as I'm sure you have been by now that you've decided you're at least somewhat more than friends."

Standing, deciding to take Keith up on his suggestion, he asked, "So I can take this conversation tonight to mean that you don't plan to shoot me for my relationship with Veronica?"

"Unless I find out that you've hurt her in any way, yes," he nodded, dead serious as he locked his eyes onto Lamb's.

Maybe it wasn't the blessing he would have hoped for, but he was a little drunk, Veronica was why (okay, maybe more the realization that if he had kissed her like that a year ago they could have saved themselves a lot of time and anguish) and given that it seemed he had been allowed to live for another day and had been granted parental permission to be with Veronica, Don couldn't really complain.

Nor could he even think to when he walked into his bedroom to find her waiting for him in nothing but his old Cowboys shirt. True this wasn't part of Keith's orders earlier, but when Veronica kissed him anything that didn't involve her began to lose all meaning.

The End


End file.
